Modern communications technologies provide numerous opportunities for individuals and organizations to communicate with others in electronic environments. Social networks, for example, allow individual organizations to communicate with groups of individuals and even the general public. Web sites and other electronic information resources often allow members of the public to provide their own content, such as product reviews, opinions on certain topics, technical assistance, photographs, audio files, video files, and other types of content. In addition, the diverse ways in which modern communication technologies operate provide opportunities to gain valuable intelligence that would not otherwise be as freely available. For instance, social networks often allow users to mutually associate themselves with one another. This allows, for example, the collection of information not only about an individual, but other individuals who have some sort of relationship with the individual. As such, effective use of such communications have the potential to have significant positive effects for the conduct of one's business.
At the same time, the ability to freely communicate using modern technologies has the potential to cause significant harmful effects on one's business. For instance, the conduct of an individual in a public forum can shape others' opinion of an organization associated with the individual. While this can be a positive effect in many instances, unsavory and/or unpopular behavior of the individual can negatively affect the organization. For instance, if an employee of a company uses excessive amounts of profanity and provides negative opinions of his or her employer in public forums, the company can suffer reputational harm, thereby affecting the company's good will with the general public. As another example, if the employee publicly posts information related to confidential dealings of the company, the company can find itself addressing various legal issues, such as securities laws violations. Thus, while modern communications provide numerous opportunities for an organization, such opportunities are not without significant risks.